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He was very cuddly during the night. At 4:40 I heard him say “Are you making stuff (or this) up?” He repeated it four or five times in his sleep. He woke up with my alarm and sat up before I did and asked, “Are you going to leave now?” I tried to convince him that I’d lay with him for a few more minutes, but he insisted it was light out and he wanted to see Carly in the morning. He wasn’t convinced that he would be the only one out in the house. After a couple minutes Carly heard him and came and got him and took him downstairs. I got dressed and followed them down. He watched Pink Panther and I took a shower. As he was watching, apropos to nothing, he told me, 1“I want to try something: Dip carrots in butter and put salt on it. See how it tastes.”

We finished reading Hilda and the Black Hound, for our third complete read-through, at least, then turned to Hilo. We finished our fifth or so reading of Hilo 3 and read a few chapters of Hilo 4. He then wanted to watch something before we went. He tried to insist that it was a rule that he watch both YouTube and Netflix in the morning. I said that definitely wasn’t a rule, but he could watch one story on Netflix. He watched a Julius Jr. Mom asked him if he knew what time it was and when he said he didn’t know she said it was time for a Zinnie hug. He said “Oops” as she gave him a hug.

We all headed out to the car at 7:45 and drove to school. We walked him down to preschool. He thought it was a little odd that Gramma and Grampa were coming too. But as I carried him down the stairs I gave him a challenge to say three things to Lydia. He actually considered it, and we talked about things he could say and he liked the challenge. The first thing was going to be “Hi”. He then came up with “How are you?” and something else. We had taken a container of carrot bread, and he hid it behind his lunch box. I was hoping he’d remember it for snack time.

My parents and I went up to wait for the Even Yehuda art tour. There was time, so I went to the car and returned a few books to the library: Gay-Neck, which I just finished, the two Magic Tree House that he hasn’t been interested in, and Hilda and the Black Hound.

The art tour was a whirlwind. There were bout a dozen of us on it in total. One had a student in Carly’s class. Lydia’s mom was there. And the one other guy was Albert, from the Czech Republic. When I talked to him he really pushed Georgia as a good place to go on vacation.

Anyway, the first stop was the Even Yehuda history museum, which is across from the park by the library. I knew it was there, but we haven’t gone in yet, figuring it is all in Hebrew, which it is. It was interesting though. From there we drove to a house north of the school where we visited an artist named Ronit Schwartz, who paints mandalas (among other things) and is into rat therapy. Then it was to our neighborhood, where we went to the vintage clothing store, owned by Neva. She also has a nice backyard, and there were pastries. This was where I talked to Albert.

From there we headed to a place on Vatikim. I had guessed it was pottery, and I was correct. It was also right where August and I found one of our vases—possibly a discarded student work, as she teaches classes. She did a demonstration, and I took photos of the metal robot sculptures in her yard to show August.

Next stop was the house on the way up to town that has the mosaics on the wall outside, at Hahadarim 63. The artist (Ofra) wasn’t there due to health issues, but Ada had permission to take us into the yard to look around.

Next was another artist, Shmuel Slama (https://www.artavita.com/artists/15525-shmuelik-slama), northeast of the school, who has teaching studio in his basement. He paints, does papier mache, sculpts, photography, etc. He had one piece in Barcelona where he covered nude people with mud so they looked like sculptures, then he painted the floor around them. He had a wonderful house and was really interesting.

From there it was to north Even Yehuda where we visited the Spring scent shop that is actually in the industrial area, then to the boutique women’s clothing store right next door to Shabtai, then to Shabtai for lunch. I got a personal pizza with arugula and goose, while my parents got the Norwegian pizza. and we shared schnitzel strips and dad and I had a beer.

I talked a little to Zoe, who has two boys, about a possible writer’s group, and a little to another mom who has a first grade girl and is a Arab Israeli Christian from Nazareth. Didn’t get a chance to talk to Lydia’s mom, although I’d like to to see how Lydia is doing with August.

We went back to school and met the class as they left the library. I helped keep the line in order as they got ready to leave the library. Amanda had done library time as Ilana is gone, taking her mother back to New York. Marion and Andrea told me they kids really liked the bread, and were all saying thank you to August.

I asked August if he had done the challenge with Lydia. He said he had said “Hi, Hello,How are you doing?” but he had used his audio link to say it into her brain so she was confused by it. We sat on a bench and he ate some bread and carrot. He had checked out A Bed Full of Cats and we read that. He and I walked up to the drinking fountain and Bibo saw him and said, “That’s my friend August.” We met his sister, Lola, who is in 2nd grade.

August was interested in playing with Taya, so I took him down to Cassie’s room. But we found out that Taya had taken the bus home because Grace is sick. We then went to the library and got Hilda and the Bird Parade (a bit earlier, I couldn’t remember the name of the book we hadn’t read yet, but August did), a book called Giants Beware! and a book I found called The Last Giants by Francois Place. August spent a few minutes watching some elementary school girls playing games on the computer and I heard him laughing a few times.

Liz checked those out for us, then we got my parents and headed down to the classroom, where I was wondering if they’d want the book of photography from around the world that Shmuel Slama had given us. They weren’t there so we left it in his cubby.

We went to the car and drove up to the post office. August stayed in with my mom while Dad and I went in and he mailed a couple postcards and their ballots, which we made sure would be dated today.

At home, August had me read all of Hilda and the Bird Parade. He complained it was short. Then he ate some pozole. He did okay, although he picked the corn and beans out, saying that is all he likes. He went to the bathroom and asked me “Remember where I keep my inventions? In the couch.” I suggested it must be pretty full, but he said there was room for millions of people to store their inventions in there. He was then singing a song that went “The day I turned 2, I tied my shoe…A bottle of yum to fill my time and that’s enough for me.” He remembered the whole verse but said there was more. He said he learned it from Marion. We found it on YouTube as “Pirate Song” and he watched it a couple times.

We then read Giants Beware! The little boy in it used ‘savored, not scarfed’. So ‘scarfed’ became the word of the day. We read 50 pages, then he wanted a Halloween treat. He chose Skittles, and Carly, who had come down and was feeling a bit better, hid them for him while I went for a run. Apparently he doesn’t like the green Skittles.

When I returned I found them eating popcorn and he was watching a show about penguins. Carly went up to take a shower and then head to bed. We read more of Giants Beware! Around page 150 of a 200 page book. I had thought the library books would last longer.

We went up for his bath and he made a potion in the sink to slow down people at night time and make them sleepy sleep. We talked about wearing socks as I thought he might have been cold last night as he was so cuddly. He said it was okay as long as he could take them off during the night if his feet were itchy.

We got his pajamas on and brushed his teeth. When he said goodnight to Carly he told her he usually sleeps 9 or 10 hours and he wanted to see her in the morning. I took him down to say goodnight to Gramma and Grampa, then we went to our bed. We did one Storytelling Dice. He used a lot of dice, so it turned into a sillier one. Just after 9 I got the lights off, and for a preschool game he wanted me to come up with the scenario. He was really tired by this point. We had him be the deerfox, but this time he snuck onto the bus after the class had been on a field trip to a nature area. When they get back they make a bed for the deerfox out of pillows in the corner of the room. He was asleep by 9:15.

Museum

Ronit

Neva?

Sculptor

Mosaics Ofra 052-539-9139 Hahadarim 63

Shmuel Slama Thursday 7:30 to 10:30 054 599

Spring aroma shop

Art tour 1:

Art tour 2:

Watching kids play on the computers:

The pirate song:

Dropping him off at school

Mosaics

Mom shopping at the boutique

Lunch at Shabtai

After library time

Bench after school

Saying goodnight to Mama

Carly got sick overnight with the same thing August had. She was downstairs when he came down at 6:50. She had a grey pillow against the end of the couch, and he kept wanting her to put it back where it belonged. She eventually headed upstairs to rest. He watched Julius Jr., then we got ready to go. A little upset when he had to turn the iPad off. But he then told me “If I wanted more iPad time I can just use this machine that makes time to slower.”

We walked to school, and he was humming a tune, changing chords in a pattern, much of the way. We got to his class at 8 and he went in to check out the classroom. I said goodbye and walked home.

My parents and I then got in the car and drove to Haifa. We were on time to make the 10am tour of the Baha’i Gardens, but close to Haifa traffic suddenly came to a standstill. Turned out to be closing a lane for construction. Our ETA suddenly shifted 16 minutes later. So we decided to go have lunch at Douzan first. Took a long time to find a parking spot, but finally found a garage under a small mall down the hill from Douzan. We walked there and had a nice table inside. The only people until a couple went into the smoking room. We ordered a plate of pastries and an order of the wrapped grape leaves. Dad and I had Turkish coffee and mom had a latte. We ate, then headed back to the car and up to the top of the gardens. Parked in the lot and joined the tour at the entrance just before noon.

The tour was good.About 25 minutes in it started to rain and for one stop the tour guide had us under a palm tree for cover. It let up a bit after that, and we got to the middle of the gardens, where the tour ends, about 12:40. It ends in the corner of the gardens that are open for wandering around, so I left my parents there to look around and I walked up the hill to the car. I went up a stairway along the way and through an apartment complex. At one point a dog came running around the corner of some stairs and chomped on my shorts twice before it reached the end of its tether.

I had time to walk to the bathroom at the top, then back to the car, then drove back down and picked them up in the tunnel area. We drove back to school, and delivered the canvas to Dorene, the art teacher. She’s talkative and we talked to her for several minutes. We picked August up and he sat on the bench and ate a couple apples to finish off his lunch. A couple of kids came by and left hula hoops on the ground and August played with one. We then went up to the cafeteria. August got a chocolate muffin and the rest of us got cappuccinos. August told the guy working there that he wanted a cappuccino as well.

As we sat at the table we were discussing something and Mom asked him, “Did you get that ?” He replied, “No. Cuz I come from another dimension.” He also asked, “Did you know I can sleep when I’m eating?” And, “Tell me about your planet. On my planet everything moves.” We then argued about whether particles are always moving. He pretended to not like the muffin: “What is this? This is disgusting!” And randomly told us, “I found a haircutting place in Turkey. It’s a 100,000 miles away.”

It started raining, quite hard, and it was an adventure getting to the car. Got him to a covered spot at the entrance, then I ran and got the car. Got his bike, then picked him up and carried him to the car. In the short distance he got some water on his shorts and got upset and wanted them changed. Finally got him to just take them off until we got home, at 4:10.

I mentioned our new sleeping arrangements (he and I were going to sleep in the office, since Carly is sick) and he said, “Arrangement. Word of the day!” He had fun taping Dad to the floor, and chanted “Little tapey bang bang.” I asked if he wanted to pick leaves for Carly’s tea. First he said no, but then I told him it had stopped raining: “Oh, I’d love to!” We made tea (mint and lemon for him, just lemon for her) and he went up and sat with her on the bed and they drank tea together. He came down and asked about a flashlight. Carly had asked me to move the lamp into that room, and she had sent him down to ask if I could do it now. But he had gotten the idea in his head that they could use a flashlight instead, and forgot to ask me about the lamp.

I moved the lamp in, and he taped it down, then asked me to close the door. He came down a bit later and watched BrainPop Jr. videos. Mom and Dad were making lasagna. We read two Ajay books on Skybrary, then Hilda and the Black Hound. We then played his science room (building something and making noise) and nisse games (from Hilda).

I went outside to lock the gate, and August came with me. He spotted a bug moving by the book case outside. I used the flashlight on my phone and it turned out to be a cockroach. He sort of played with it, using a leaf, until it ran underneath.

He convinced me to give him a dry lasagna noodle. He broke it into pieces and started taping pieces together into a bridge between the coffee table and the couch: “The noodle bridge. You can eat it too if you want to.” “You’re someone crossing the bridge and someone takes a big bite out of it.” He ate several bites, then of course didn’t eat the actual lasagna when it was ready.

I gave him a stool bath, then we did the storytelling dice. He gave me 13 dice, in a U shape, so it became a long adventure. He was then chanting “Pollyndra Pack Wallace” Which is from Hilo. We were quite before 9, with just my phone on as a lamp. He asked me to tell him about when I was a kid: “Saturday of the third week of January…17.” Very specific. Best I could do was when we once went inner tubing in the snow, I think senior year. He turned it into a story where he was doing tricks…swirls, running on it… Then a crazy preschool game where he was making noise from the top of the school but the principal had asked him to do it. He went to the bathroom, then back in the bedroom he needed to finish a more normal preschool story, with, I think, a happy ending for an adopted deerfox or nisse in the classroom. At the end he announced “The end” and threw himself over with his head on my shoulder and his arms wrapped around my right arm and was asleep within a couple minutes.

Awhile later Mom saw a cockroach in the bathroom. We caught it and I threw it outside.

Morning tune 1:

Morning tune 2:

Baha’i Gardens tour:

Hula hoop:

Rain slo-mo:

Lasagna bridge:

Lunch at Douzan

Sheltering from the rain

His CD art

Picking leaves for tea for mama

Lasagna noodle and tape art on the table

His cockroach friend

Planning a long story

He sort of threw up a couple times during the night, the second around 5, but nothing really came up. It happened again around 6:30. Carly was already up, so I lay down next to him and he lay there for another 15 minutes before we made our way downstairs. He was slow, sliding down the stairs on his bottom. He lay on the couch for a minute, then went and got his shoes and went outside with Carly.

He came back in and watched Wanda and the Alien on the couch next to me as I typed. At 7:30 he threw up for real, right as we were talking about if he felt like eating. We read seven chapters of Hilo 3 and he ate two slices of peanut butter toast. He lay on the floor for while, then cuddled with Carly, then was silent on the floor again. Really thought he’d take a nap on the floor again. He had us play a science class game and was making a machine to find lost things. It took 3000 Saturn years to make it.

He and Carly then did a science experiment where they picked flowers, then put them in water with different colors of food coloring in it. He got some Smarties and Carly made him a squirrel nest and we were hiding each Smartie for him and he would come out of the nest and try to find it. We’d give him the beeping hints for how close he was. Carly was making pozole. August said “You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit. You do what you do when you don’t have a fit.” He said part of it was from Andrea and he made the rest up.

Carly headed to the grocery store and Ace to get some groceries and supplies for her Get to Know You Day. August and I made banana and carrot bread. One loaf of banana, and one that was three carrots and one banana. That was a sort of compromise/experiment that August and I came up with after he didn’t want to make a second loaf. My parents went for a short walk over to the west, down the little path and past the bomb shelter. August helped me from time to time, and would go back to lying on the couch, resting.

My parents got back, then Carly. August was using the wand he made out of straws yesterday and casting spells: “Abracadabra, make mama my helper.” Eve, Dada, the door…my helper. Then he was casting spells on Gramma: “make your eyes fall out…make Gramma broken…make Gramma fixed.” He asked to use the “birthday camera”, my SLR, so I went up and got that and let him take photos. He asked for the fisheye lens and took more photos. He was then in his squirrel nest, before playing on the kitchen floor and taping up Gramma. At one point he asked Carly, “Do you have an extendo-toe?” He was making a long toe for himself, I think, and Gramma said they could make it more stiff for him. He asked what that meant and declared ‘stiff’ the word of the day. He had fun taping up Gramma on the kitchen floor, and taped a toilet paper tube to her, which he was then looking through.

It was getting windy outside, and August went out the kitchen door by himself and sat at the table. At first he didn’t want anyone following him, then he invited Carly out and asked, “Fresh and rosy fingered like the dawn. Right, mama?” He watered the plants. Mom had been sitting on the floor, and I asked August if it was okay for her to take the tape off. He said it was okay, as long as I had gotten a photo.

The banana and carrot breads were done and we had a little. They turned out well. We got ready and left at 2:25. In the car, August remembered he’d wanted to take his tape dispenser and I ran back in the house to get it. He spent most of the time in the car taping himself in his vest. Then, as we got to the art store off of 4, where Carly was buying a canvas for the art project at Friday’s Get to Know You Day, August fell asleep. It was 2:50 and I stayed in the car with him while the rest of them went in. She came out with one big canvas but realized we couldn’t fit it in the car. They went back and got the next smaller size and it fit perfectly.

August slept for about a half hour and we woke him up as we got to Wiz Kids. Carly carried him in, looked around for a minute, then went out and cuddled with him on a bench while we finished up. I got five Paddington books that were 40% off and two more sets of the Story Dice. Mom wanted to get him something for a Christmas present and I pointed out the hanging rods thing (kind of looks like a Calder mobile) and she bought that. Turned out to also be 40% off.

August was a bit hesitant about the whole staying with Gramma and Grampa thing, but that changed when I said they were going to take him for ice cream. We drove over to the street by her house with the grocery store, parked, then walked in a circle around the block so my parents could see the office, the playground, and then the grocery store. We left them at the grocery store where he was choosing ice cream. Ended up with one of those small dishes of some caramel chocolate kind. They bought that and took it to the park, ate it with the little spoon in it (which he didn’t like the idea of, but then it was just fine once he was eating the ice cream), and played in the park. He played a little, but it sounded like they mainly just talked.

After about 50 minutes he thought we should be there, and they got on the bike and walked past the office. He recognized where the office was, saying “I see it in my mind.” Pretty good, as it was dark by then. They kept walking a bit south, then headed back north to the park. He was relaxed the whole time. We caught up with them as they walked back in the park, Dad pushing him.

Meanwhile, the meeting with Dr. Aviv went well. In a nutshell, yes, gifted, 99th percentile. But she was also recommending him for occupational therapy to work on his writing, as he holds his pencil awkwardly. That’s something we haven’t pushed as he has resisted holding his markers that way, and we figured they’d teach in school. Not too worried about this one, as I think he’ll catch on once he’s taught it. His dexterity with tape and scissors is just fine. And she also recommended speech therapy for a few sounds (‘l’ and ‘r’, for example). There were also a few areas, not covered by the IQ test overall, where he wasn’t as strong, such as realistic puzzles. But he did quite well with abstract ones. This one is interesting, as he hasn’t been too interested in puzzles, but when he has, he didn’t seem to pick up on the visual clues/edge pieces/etc. like I’m used to him picking up on other skills. In math, she gave him 1st grade assessments and normed him that and he did really well. She talked about how he had internalized the number line and could subtract beyond 10, and also how he was able to talk through and solve types of problems he’s never seen before (like adding 4 numbers).

She related a couple of stories of him from her observations. He was doing some activity and said, “I’ve made a marvelous discovery.” Which she loved, but she also related as an example of how his advanced language skills can cause problems relating to his peers, who didn’t understand what the heck he was talking about. And when they were painting on a big long piece of paper the kid next to him put the blue brush into the yellow. August said, “Oh, blue and yellow make green!…But now we don’t have yellow. Should I get more?” Here she was pointing out both his language and how, while he doesn’t relate really well to his peers, necessarily, he responds well—he just as easily could have gotten upset that the other kid had ruined his paint.

She also said that when she had met with his teachers she had told them they needed to do more direct instructions with him for the social skills. For example, she saw one interaction between him and one of the teachers where she asked him what he wanted to do next, and he said play with the blocks. He did indeed go over to play with the blocks, and the teacher went somewhere else. He found two other kids playing with the blocks, stood there watching for a few minutes, but didn’t know how to join them, and then eventually walked off and started wandering around the classroom, which is what the teachers don’t want him to do. Instead, they need to go with him and facilitate the interaction and have him ask if he can join in. She also suggested they buddy him up with a leader (politely bossy kid). I think they may have started doing this, partnering him with Eve.

Oh, she also suggested an after school social skills group at the preschool. And she said she had talked to Vicky, who was open to the idea. I know the social skills are an area to work on, but I’m really not all that worried, as he seems to be making a lot of progress since 4 weeks ago. He’s talked about playing with Reia, Selma, Candy, Sophia, and Simona. And I know he’s interacted with Eve a lot.

That said, there were a couple things I feel she misread: she talked about how she saw him stare at his lunchbox during lunch, open it and get stuff out, put it back, open it again, put it back, etc. She thought he really wanted to eat, but was deciding to save it to eat with me. But my guess is that one time he was getting out the comic from me and looking at it, and another time he got out the bar and ate it. I don’t think it was quite the wrestling with his stomach that she thought it was.

We drove home. I read him two chapter of Hilo 2, as 3 wasn’t on his iPad. We were home at 6:10. He wanted to play with the story dice right away, but I needed dinner first. He finally relented and we got dinner together. He asked, “Did you know garbanzo beans bounce in your tummy?” The pozola for dinner was really good. He and I got into a debate about how much a ton is, after he was asking about how your body gets energy, stores calories, etc. and that turned into a discussion of weight. I reminded him a ton is 2000 pounds. He said, “No. A ton is 1000 pounds.” We’ve had this debate before and he claimed that Carly told him it was a thousand, so he’s sticking to it.

While she was up from the table he taped her spoon to her bowl. And he taped me to the table and my phone to me. Sometime earlier Mom had said something to him about being four and a half and he said, “actually a little more.”

I took him up to the bathroom and gave him his bath and washed his hair in the sink. Back downstairs, Dad started confusing me again by telling a cruise story and starting “On the ship…” I told him that my whole life when he’s started with “On the ship…” he was taking about the Navy.

Upstairs, he combined the story dice and chose two from each set for a story. I made up a story called “Signs point to…” We are starting to develop a world around the Nine Kingdoms, where science and magic hold different roles in the different kingdoms, and our different sets of stories (the apprentice, the adventurer) are set. Somewhere in the middle he asked, “Can a human make birth to a gorilla?” We discussed that, then finished our story.

I took him down to my parents and he said goodnight and got a Zinnie hug. He asked Carly why she irons her clothes, and he decide he wanted his clothes ironed: “But my clothes are bumpy. Please, mama?”

I went for a run around 8. He and Carly were both asleep when I got back. I took a shower and discussed the meeting with Dr. Aviv with my parents. As we did that we heard thunder. We got an excellent storm for the next hour or two. I went to bed and could see tons of flashes out the window, facing east. Our best thunderstorm since we’ve been here.

Casting spells:

Taping Gramma:

Zinnie hug:

Resting again

Science experiment

Helping with bread

Being dragged by Gramma

Bread

Tape on Gramma

Asleep in the car

Choosing ice cream with Gramma and Grampa

Finding them in the park

Our haul

He threw up twice during the night. The first was right before I was going to bed and Carly called me to ask me to bring up the bowl. He was then up at 6:45. I was still in bed, and got up to close the door after him. He heard me and popped his head back in the room and told me “You can sleep more if you want to.” And closed the door behind himself.

I came down a little later and when I came down he had had some chocolate milk. He watched Wanda and the Alien and I typed. I made a mango smoothie but he didn’t really drink much. He had me do a time lapse video of him drinking it though. He then did time lapse videos. He played with the tripod with Gramma. I set up a tripod and he did a long one of him playing on the rug. Kind of a new kind of performance art for him.

We sat on the couch and read Hilo. We read the last 3 or 4 chapters of volume 4, then started volume 2. Carly headed to the store. He wanted mango and I thawed him some. He ate that and I did dishes. He complained that the mango was too thawed and that he wanted it straight from the bag. I got him some more and he ate most of that. He then came up with a game where he built a diagnostic machine that could tell kids at school why they were sick and what they needed to do to get better. He diagnosed several kids. He started a new variation on the game by building a diagnostic machine in the park.

He played with the tripod and then wanted it folded back up to be small. I taught him how to fold up the tripod and how to fold over the rubber bands to make them tight. He then got his tape out and was taping the cracks in the kitchen door and taping up the tripod. I took a shower and he made things with the straws and tape with Gramma. He made a microphone and they made an abstract structure. Carly called and he answered and went and checked how many apples were in the fridge for her. He set down the phone, opened the fridge, saw two apples, and went and told her: “Can I hang up now?”

He did more building with Gramma: “This is mootiful!” Carly got home and found out that there were actually several apples in a drawer. He had just counted the apples that were on a shelf. So now we have plenty of apples. He played with Sound Rebound. Carly and I were trying to figure out which beach to go to. I was trying to figure out if one had a bathroom and August wanted to help. Helping involved using the phone by himself, however, and Carly ended up taking him upstairs for a few minutes.

Back downstairs he was taping lots of stuff. He had taped the straw things together into a microphone, and with Gramma had been taping their structure to the rug. He was then throwing the blanket to knock over the towers and we first did bursts, then a slo-mo of him doing it.

We got ready to go and left at 1:15 for Beit Yanai Beach. It is a beach we went to once when coming back from the north. On the way he sat between me and Dad. He started singing a song about making a tunnel that was blocked, then he was singing about how you couldn’t do that because the animals would just go back and forth. He was singing about the game Toca Blocks, which I don’t even remember him playing recently. We got into a “Hay!” exchange about something, then he said, “Hay…what horses eat.”

As we drove into the parking lot at the beach he saw a sign and said, “No horses or dogs. That’s the rule. Do we have any horses or dogs?” He then said he had a metal horse that gallops and sings in French (inspired by Izzy in Hilo). “But I think they’ll allow it.”

We got down to the beach. He and I dug a hole for awhile while everyone else waded in the water. He was finding rocks for Carly to use in the garden, then wanted to ask if he could collect shells too. I said he could, but he had to yell out to Carly, who was now floating on the kickboard, to get an answer from her. He let me carrying him out to a spot several feet out in the water where it was shallow again, just up to his ankles, and there were lots of shells. We used the bucket and collected quite a few, with Gramma and Grampa helping. He told me “I have a song stuck in my head.” It was the Alligator song we made up in Korea. He was then singing the entire Alligator song. That was cool to see, although I didn’t get a video of that.

He was now ready for ice cream, and I took him over to the little snack shack. He chose a Cornetto Vanil (וניל). He wanted to sit at a table there and ate it. I should have told him we were sharing, as it was quite big and I was afraid it was going to upset his stomach. He let me eat some of it though. When he was done he talked about how he could keep eating a lot more.

Back down at our beach spot Mom and Dad went for a walk up the beach. He played with Carly, making a big hole, and I did some reading. Carly took him up to the bathroom, and he came back with some sort of plastic stick thing that he used. He was then dancing around and yelling the words from Toca Band.

We got going a little after 4. In the car he played Toca Band and wanted it loud. Carly turned on music and he complained, saying people could listen to his music. We made it home at 4:45. When we got out of the car he used his iPad to record the sound of the wind and the birds, and wanted everyone to be quiet.

He and Carly picked a bunch of leaves to make tea. While the water was heating, I suggested he use the french press to make a pot for everyone. He said, “I want it the usual way with leaves at the bottom. It’s prettiest that way.”

Cherie called and they Skyped with her, sitting outside. I went for a run—straight up through town, which I’ve done before, but then to the left and back down a different street that comes back down through town—and when I got back they were just finishing up.

He then played on the floor of the kitchen. Intently playing with straws and tape and the salad spinner and cardboard tubes. He was taping shapes out of the straws and throwing them, etc. (one was a plane) and then made a cardboard mixture with water in the salad spinner.

He did that as we got dinner ready. Schnitzel for the rest of us and he had something else. He was talking about not liking food, which may be because he’s been sick, but he was chalking up to “I’m from another dimension so…”

He and I then sat on the couch and read more Hilo. We finished book 2 and gave in and bought book 3. We didn’t end up starting it today though. Carly took him upstairs for a bath. He played in the sink for a long time, then she gave him a bath and brushed his teeth.

I came in the bedroom and he wanted to do Storytelling Dice instead of Hilo. I told a story that continued on our last one about the octopus, in which they actually deal with the octopus this time. The solution, however, is a giant serpent, which then takes the octopus’s place in terrorizing ships.

Looking up at the light cover on the ceiling he said, “Thats the exact shape of my planet. All bumpy and stuff.” With just my flashlight on we played a science class game and he was building a machine in the safety room. It was a machine that does a diagnostic scan of the earth to find lost things. He was then finding lost things for people. He was asleep at 9:15.

Smoothie time lapse:

Rug time lapse:

Building with Gramma:

Destruction slo-mo:

Toca Blocks song 1:

Toca Blocks song 2:

Ice cream at the beach:

Toca Band song and dance:

Playing in the sand:

His secret photos of us

His microphone

Their structure

Throwing the blanket

Mom and Dad in the Mediterranean

Talking through his hat

Ice cream

Listening to his recording of birds

Playing on the kitchen floor

I heard a door upstairs but then thought it might have been my parents. But a couple minutes later, at 7:25, I heard a thud, thud, thud. I went up to find him lying on the couch, kicking the front of it with one foot. He ended up cuddling on my lap for a few minutes. When I asked how his stomach felt he said, “Not so good.” I carried him down, and he curled up on me on the couch. He wanted some water. Just a sip but then he coughed/threw up. Luckily I had brought down the bowl, although very little came up.

He then curled up by himself in the black chair for awhile. We moved to the couch and read the rest of Hilda and the Black Hound. My parents were up by the time we were done. He was then feeling good enough to eat his vitamins and the last of the zucchini bread.

He watched a StoryBots and I showered. He watched Pink Panther and ate some of the zucchini bread and Cheerios. We read more of Hilda and ‘snob’ was the word of the day. We read about the first third, our third full reading of the book. He played with his tape and grampa for a few minutes and I made french toast but then he just lay on the floor. I asked how his stomach was and he now said 3. It had been a 5 earlier, and a 1 when he threw up.

He felt a little warm and said he felt warm. We played around with the thermometers and batteries (he had dropped one of them in water awhile back and the battery corroded) andtook his temperature. 37.1. Not really high, but a bit high for him. He had wanted to experiment with the corroded battery, but didn’t have enough energy to get up and squirt soap on it. That clearly communicated that he wasn’t feeling well. He was out of time for watching Netflix/YouTube, but I let him watch some BrainPop Jr. videos—about Halloween, boiling and evaporating.

He lay on the floor again and played with the lotion container and pen. He then had the tissue box and tucked some under his chin, then fell asleep at 12:30 cuddling the tissue box.

I typed and read and updated the blog. My parents went for a walk. I exercised and switched to the Seven Brief Lectures on Physics book as I did some cleaning. I gently woke him up at 3:15. He lay around until 3:30. Took his temperature again and it was at least 37.6. He pulled it out when I said it was high. I gave him some medicine and he said it “Tickles my throat.” He talked about the vibration of the particles in his throat.

We talked about Gramma and grampa’s walk and dogs—they had been startled by the dog that jumps up on the fence up on Kibuts Galuyot. They were also followed by a couple of dogs for a bit. August said he had a dog rock throwing machine “You can borrow it…I can make it smaller so it fits in your pocket…a hundred times stronger than trees.” At first he said it was in a park in the United States, but then he brought it back here for them to use.

He Played with grampa’s watch and turned things digital—that is, he turned them into 1s and 0s so that you could just put your hand through them. We read three Skybrary books: Freda Stops a Bully, Freda Says Please, and Great Choice, Camille!

He then asked for a mango smoothie. He watched more BrainPop Jr. and I made a smoothie. Carly then got home, close to 5. He cuddled with her as he watched a bit more. Then they went out to get leaves to make tea for him. He had one pant leg halfway up as he did that and as he showed Gramma the bug catcher.

Carly made him tea and he drank his tea and stared at the ceiling in the kitchen. To Carly he said, “I love you ten infinities.” Then to the medicine: “I love you five infinities.”

He wanted more smoothie but settled for frozen mango. I thawed some, but he didn’t really eat it. He was then looking at the table with the flashlight and asked who made it dirty in a funny voice. He asked me what another student would say when he was gone and had me be Candy and Reia asking about him. He told me he and Candy had talked about a spider at rest time, although he said the teachers didn’t say anything to them.

We got all the options out for dinner, including the mashed potato pastry I got at the bakery the other day. August liked it, but it was too peppery after a few bites.

I went for a run, and when I came back he was eating popcorn and watching polar bears. He hadn’t wanted to read. Carly said that after having watched this video so many times she understood why polar bears were going extinct and that it seemed unstoppable. I then joked about what other species she would be willing to let go.

I took a shower, then we started reading Hilo 4 from the beginning. After a few chapters I took him upstairs and we brushed his teeth. We did a Storytelling Dice story called “Another Crazy Mission”. He wanted his photo taken of the face he was making in the mirror as he lay with his head in his hands.

I left him and Carly a little after 9. I thought they were asleep and when I heard a door at 10 I thought it was Carly still up. But it was August. He came down, very happy to see me. We read more of Hilo 4, and finished chapter 8. At the end of the chapter he was ready to go back to bed. He went in at 10:30 and was soon asleep. Carly said he really had been trying to go to sleep earlier, thus the quiet.

Trying to wake him up:

Google Docs song:

Adapting a song from dance class:

Sick boy

Sleeping with the tissue box

Drinking medicine

Showing Gramma the bug catcher

Being cute in the mirror

He got up at 6 with me. He watched Wanda and the Alien and played with the tire pressure gauge. We took the car, leaving by 7:45. We parked at the school and I took him in while Mom and Dad waited in the car. We parked his bike at the rack and I left a bag with his iPad and car vest in it. We asked Andrea what would be after rest time (she said it would be the open preschool thing they did last week) and I asked about the ‘special student’. It was a boy named Simona, and he is a new student.

I stayed for a minute outside while he got comfortable as they started meeting. Back in the car, we made our way to Jerusalem. A little over 2 hours, taking 4, 40, and 443.

We parked in the Mamilla parking garage by the Jaffa Gate. Once in the city we walked counterclockwise. By the end of the day we made a rough circle through all four of the quarters: Armenian, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian. We saw the old Roman road on our way to the Western Wall. At the wall my parents went and touched it. We changed into pants, then got in line about 12:10 for the Temple Mount. They started security about that time and we were able to wait on the bridge looking down at the Western Wall area.

Once inside we headed straight back, past Al-Aqsa Mosque. We wandered over to the Golden Gate area, then walked up to the Dome of the Rock on the east side. Walked around that, saw the view of the Mt. of Olives, then headed out into the Muslim Quarter at 1:30.

We found the Al Buraq restaurant and sat in the downstairs section. We got the grilled chicken and the schwarma, and hummus, tahinis, and Turkish salad. I got a salab to drink.

After lunch we headed north through the Muslim Quarter. They mostly finished their shopping, getting a few things. We turned left towards the Christian Quarter and finished with a pretty full tour of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

We were all tired by then, and got back to the car about 4:15. Got driving, and were home just before 6:30.

Along the way I asked Carly to ask August what the word of the day is. He said “Hypofomicly…I made all the words, so there can’t be a word of the day.” “Hypofomicly is a type of chemical. It’s the chemical you get from the middle of the moon. Very dangerous. Koisonous.“

Carly picked him up after school. He was just out in the grass by himself when she got there. He wanted a treat, but he hadn’t eaten his lunch, and didn’t want to eat any of it now to get Mama-Zinnie cafeteria time. He seemed sad that I wasn’t there and she was trying to avoid a breakdown. They left the bench at 3:40 by trying to see if Mandy would give them a ride. She looked really busy though. Carly bribed him to walk home by promising a Halloween treat when they got home. He had Starburst.

Of school we learned that he hadn’t played with Simona today. Also, that students played after rest time when they weren’t supposed to. They were supposed to go outside but were being loud. He says he wasn’t one of the loud ones though. He also said they had read Muffin Man during Literacy Time today, but then expressed doubt about that.

When we got home at 6:30 he was playing Monster Physics on the couch. I made myself some water drink. As August played he wistfully said,”I think I smell water drink.” “Yeah. I was thinking about it.” “I can smell it.”

I saw they had an insect in the bug catcher. It had been on the floor and playing dead earlier. It was now standing up and August examined it. He let it go outside, then was putting other things in the bug catcher to look at them. He started doing concoctions of spices and food coloring and they actually looked quite cool. He accidentally spilled one and he vacuumed it up.

Carly took him up to do another stool bath. He played in the sink for a long time, doing an experiment that involved getting a toilet paper roll wet. He talked about being the only one that could touch it, because he had a special suit: “Just like an astronaut suit but more powerful. It has an entire computer in it.”

She finally gave him his sink bath, then out in the play area he sang a “Books, books, books” song as he danced in the mirror. He then described a preschool game scenario: “Scenario! Word of the day.” In it, he ended up making a robot that would tell kids when they were breaking the rules. He put it in a human body: “I killed a person for a good reason.” I suggested that wasn’t actually a good reason, and he changed his mind and said he had found a body when digging. I suggested grave robbing also wasn’t approved of, and we discussed donating bodies for science.

We went downstairs to say good night, and he told Gramma “You forgot to do a Zinnie hug!” I think he had told her the same thing in the morning. Also, I forgot to mention that sometime last night he fell down part of the lower half of the stairs. He sort of did a somersault down the first few stairs then stopped himself. Startled, but not really hurt.

Back in the room I asked what he wanted to read and he said, “Hilda. Because I like to sink into the book.” We read about a third of it. Turned on the ‘lamp’ and he chose a park game where I heard him building something in a park, and it turned out to be a machine to make you live 100 years longer.

He was trying a lot of stalling tonight, but fell asleep just before 9.

At the Western Wall:

Negotiating:

Monster Physics:

Examining the insect:

Making concoctions to look at:

Sink experiment:

Books, books, books dance:

Jewish Quarter

Photos of each other

Dome of the Rock

Lunch

Shopping

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

August on Monster Physics

Examining his concoction

Our path around Jerusalem

August was up early. At 5:35, just after Carly. She tried to see if he’d go back to sleep, but he didn’t. He shadowed her while she got ready, then was watching Wanda and the Alien when I came down at 6. When he was done with that, and had eaten first Cheerios and then his vitamins and zucchini bread, he wanted to do a stop motion animation. But when we went to set it up, the Big Fish project was missing from the app. They had been adding a bunch to it after making their own video yesterday. He didn’t get really upset, but he didn’t want to do stop motion anymore. Instead, he played with the light up beach ball. He had Grampa do something with it, then August was trying to take more air out of it by squishing it with different things.

He played with it a bit more, then I got us going and walking at 7:40. I put some lotion on his hand and he screamed and screamed about it hurting him. But when I explained we needed to do it to make the dryness go away and we should do it twice a day, he said, “Oh. Three times then.” On the walk we talked about what to do with his bottle caps. He said, “We could use them for a game. The big ones are easier and the little ones are harder. Like bottle cap catch.” He was then singing a wonderful “I’m a person that likes pollution” song. I recorded it. But after it was over he then told me why he likes pollution. It’s because he has a machine that makes good things out of pollution.

We got to class before the bell. But they were already meeting again. He knew we’d be back before dance and that he could make dance class shorter if he wanted. He talked to me outside though and told me “The whole preschool class needs to be shorter.” I got him to go to the meeting to hear about the day while I waited outside for a few minutes. He popped out after a minute and told me “Hey dada! They’re having a special kid over!” He was smiling, and ran back in.

I walked home, then my parents and I got ready and headed to Jaffa. We stopped at Ace on the way and got a tire pressure gauge as a low pressure warning has gone on in the car. We checked the tire pressures and they seemed okay, then headed on to Jaffa.

Took close to an hour to get there. Our usual parking lot is now a construction site, so drove around and found a spot on the street a couple blocks north of the market. Walked to the market and did some looking around. My parents got a couple things and I got a small wooden chess set as a Christmas present for August.

We stopped at Awni for lunch, all getting falafel sandwiches, then walked west to Kdumin Square where we saw the view and Andromeda Rocks. Then walked back through Abrasha Park, seeing the Wishing Bridge. Abouelafia Bakery and got some za’atar breads and a couple of other things. Back at the car we found a parking ticket, along with the other cars parked there. It was a delivery vehicle only area, but without a painted curb and no sign in front of us, only one behind that we didn’t see and couldn’t read. An Israeli woman returned to her car at the same time and read the sign to me and she was upset about it to. Meanwhile, there are cars parked all over the painted red and white curbs not getting tickets.

We drove back, a bit quicker this time, and had time to go into Even Yehuda and the bank so my parents could get cash.

We then drove to the school to pick up August. He went out on the bench and Andrea showed me that they’d put up an ‘I wonder…’ wall. August had put up ‘How does the universe work?’ Back outside, Anna told me about a recent article in The NY Times about restaurants outside of Tel Aviv. In particular a sourdough bakery she had just gone to and had thought of me, as Marion had told her I was working on sourdough starter.

August went up to dance class and stayed for all of it. Mom and Dad had gone to the library to look at newspapers, etc. and read, but the teachers were too noisy so they came back to the bench. At 4, when the teachers came back from their staff meetings, I told Anna that I had found the article and would visit the bakery. Cassie overheard, and asked me to give her some of my starter when it is ready.

We then headed to Carly’s classroom. There, August played school with her. He sat on the big stool and was of course distracted by it. They did math on the board, and August was trying to figure them out in his head, or whispering his thinking to himself as much as possible. For art time I drew a person on a boat with a sword getting attacked by two huge sea monsters. Carly then brought the plants over and he studied leaves, comparing them.

I asked him about the special student at school today, and he said it was a boy that liked to find treasures with him. And the boy was his age. Will have to talk to his teachers to learn more. We left at 4:45.

At home, Carly read Camille’s Team to him on Skybrary. He then watched Aardvark and Ant. I made raviolis and a rose sauce for dinner/lunches but we also had all the leftovers to choose from. August recited “Run, run, as fast as you can. You can’t catch me in the gingerbread man!” He said it was from literacy time with Ms. Vicky. I used the word ‘simultaneously’ and he said “Simultaneously! Word of the day!”

Mom and Dad gave him a couple more gifts, from the U.S. this time: a coin/medallion thing, and a shirt that makes him look like a robot. He then took care of Gramma and Grampa. He had them help him tape his flashlight to the side of the coffee table. He then had Gramma lying on the floor, reading a book, with her head on a pillow and her body covered with blankets. Grampa had things covering his feet to keep them warm. He kept asking what else they needed. He told me “I learned how to do that at preschool.’ Take care of people, that is, and he specifically mentioned taking care of Candy that one day after school.

Carly took him up and gave him his bath—a bath from the sink as he stood on the stool. He and I then read Hilda and the Black Hound (again). Now, ‘banished’ became a word of the day. We used the storytelling dice and told a story called The Making of a Jeweler. He went down and said good night, then we played a preschool game with a deerfox from a different universe that came into a preschool class. He was asleep at 8:30, seconds after complaining that he couldn’t fall asleep.

I’m a person that likes pollution song:

Starting class:

Math class with mama:

Studying plants:

I’m saving you from the Banobee song:

Showing us yoga:

Taking care of Gramma and Grampa:

Trying to get out the air

Shopping

Lunch

His ‘I wonder…’

Playing school

Taping the flashlight

Taking care of them

He was up a little before 6. When I came down a bit later he was watching Pink Panther. Carly got him some bread and apples. She went outside to read and I typed on the couch next to him. He wanted to play Dragonbox Big Numbers with Carly but she was doing laundry. So I read Percy Plays It Safe from Skybrary to him. He then went over to Gramma, who was sitting on one of the chairs used for his fort from last night. He got a stool for her for a table for her tea, then a pillow for under her feet. He told her about the book we just read: “Skybrary…You should try it. There’s lots of books…about good things that happen and bad things…like, there’s a pirate one, so maybe bad things…”

He then said he was one of their cats that they accidentally brought with them. He was Cindy or Iris on and off for the day. He then wanted to play with the guitar and so I went upstairs and we played with that. He brought Gramma up to show her. They then discussed cutting their hair and he said, “Mama is the best hair cutter I’ve ever seen.”

Back downstairs he read a Bob Book to her and then I gave him some iced tea. He likes the idea of iced tea more than the iced tea itself, as he only had a drink and left the rest. He was using the kitchen scale to weigh things when I went up for a shower. When I came down he was sitting next to Gramma, using Voice Memos to record himself singing. He got the kaleidoscope cards out and was playing with them with people. We got ready to head to Apollonia and left at 10:30.

Waze took us on a backroads route, despite having ‘Avoid dirt roads’ turned on, it led us across a few kilometers of dirt roads at the end. It was nice, as it took us past the sculpture area just west of 2 that we’ve always seen from the highway. We liked that, then saw three gazelle in a field to the right of the road. We finally came out right next to Apollonia.

Very busy there. Apparently lots of people have the Election Day off. But we had fun and August did much, much, much better than the first time we took him. A fair amount cooler, too. We saw a kid in a stroller lose a balloon that then floated out over the sea. Then, on the walk north, August really liked the lime kiln and just kept staring and staring at it. We walked to just north of the castle and looked at the siege engines and discussed how they worked, then went to the castle itself. He and Carly sat on a bench area while the rest of us looked around. They were being archeologists and he called her “Archeologist Mama” a few times.

From there we drove over to Cafe Ameli in Nof Yam. We got a green shakshuka, as did my dad, while mom got a toast sandwich with tuna. The shakshukas came with wonderful bread and a salad, so it was just enough food for us. I had a Turkish coffee and Carly and mom got iced lattes. August chose a grapefruit and apple juice, which the woman was reluctant to make at first, but then Carly and I really liked. August was less impressed.

We ate, and we saw some cats. Up to 134. August saw someone and said, “I see someone that looks like Ms. Amelia.” And turned it into a song. He dropped his bread and caught it on the table and said “Good catch” to himself.

We then changed into our long pants and went over to the Sidna Ali Mosque. Mom and Carly used scarves and sweatshirts to cover their heads. We went in and looked around. One man came over and talked to us a bit. I asked him a little about the village that had been here and he pointed in the direction of the houses that still exist but are owned by Jews. I need to work on my interviewing skills, as I think he would have been willing to talk a lot more, and tell us about how the Nakba affected the village.

When August saw gramma with her scarf over her head he told her, “You’re so pretty!” We hadn’t put pants on him, but he wanted them on as well, since we all had on long pants to go in, so I changed him as well.

We went and saw the view from the roof. August played with a grill and a plastic piece he found up there. We then left before 3.

Back in the car he told me “Hey Ryan, I want the shortest way.”

At home he did stop motion with Carly. They made a video, then added to the Big Fish one. I made a mushroom and broccoli quiche and mom helped. Carly made a mango smoothie and August and I drank ours as we watched the Apple event. Lana del Rey performed on it, and as August listened he said, “The iPad said stupid!” The word was actually ‘stoop’, and that became the word of the day.

He then just cuddled with grampa for quite awhile. That was very cool to see. To keep Gramma from moving her chair at the table he put something behind it. This turned into a big game where he made a big mess of stuff on the floor.

I got the quiche out. It was finished, but kind of soft. I had already dished up August’s, so while I put the rest of it back in, he ate most of a big piece. The rest of us ate, and he played Khan Kids or World School while we ate.

He then wanted to go outside with the flashlights. And he had me get Cheerios as well. He invited Grampa out with us. As we went he asked, “Hey, Grampa. How much times in your life have you gone to the doctor?” We all sat out on the bench together. I have no idea where he got the idea, but he asked me, “Could I have an app on my iPad so I can find news and find new words of the day?”

We went in at 6:50 and I put News-O-Matic on his iPad. We watched a video about making a Halloween costume for a dog, then watched the video and read part of the article about a wind and ocean current satellite that was launched. But mainly we looked at the map that went along with it. We discussed how Grampa has now almost been around the entire world, as he had gone as far west as the Straight of Hormuz when in the Navy.

He got a Jolly Rancher as his Halloween treat for today. He said, “Good. Crunchy. Hard.” But then decided it was too sticky so I got the rest. Carly put cream on him, as the back of his left hand has gotten really dry, and now the top of his thighs and the back of his knees as well were looking dry. We also skipped a bath because of it tonight. Anyway, there was a lot of screaming over a little cream.

He didn’t want to go downstairs to say good night, so I said it for hm, then I went for a run. He went to sleep with Carly, and I think he was asleep around 8.

Reading to Gramma:

Seige weapons at Apollonia:

Rocks down the cistern at Apollonia:

Putting Gramma and Grampa to sleep:

His big mess:

His shadows song:

His AAA song:

Reading to Gramma and Grampa:

Entranced by the cistern

Playing with sticks while we waited for food

Lunch

At the mosque

Cuddling with Grampa

His mess

On the swing again

Reading to Gramma and Grampa

Thanks to the time change, he was up at 5:50. He didn’t want to go outside with Carly as it was too cold for him. When I came down a few minutes later he was watching Wanda and the Alien. I sat next to him and typed. He requested his vitamins, then a piece of toast with peanut butter and syrup. He decided it was warm enough to go out with Carly and put on his sweatshirt and shoes and went out with her. She made him chocolate milk. He asked for my watch and was exercising—he showed me an exercise where he was bouncing on the teeter totter. He had me untie the 2kg weight from his project yesterday so he could exercise with it. He then wanted to weigh it on the kitchen scale. He was playing with that and having fun, then got upset when we couldn’t zero out the scale to exactly measure the yeast mixture. Carly took him upstairs for a few minutes.

August wanted to play with the guitar and we ended up playing with it for a really long time. He found some amp and petal setups that he really liked in GarageBand—ones with lots of echo and phasing—and played. He used VoiceMemos to record some of his improv. At one point he wanted me to play the xylophone, but then decided it didn’t go with the guitar. He asked what an amplifier actually was, and ‘amplify’ was the word of the day. Eventually, I went to take a shower and he kept playing with it. He discovered that his synth app would, oddly, start playing when he switched into one other app, but not others, and he called me out to see it.

Back downstairs, I made scrambled eggs and cheese and we ate outside. He was then making a concoction for the plants with Carly. I then made the zucchini bread and he helped with that. He would play iPad, then help when I had something to do. At one point he went and told Carly “Mama, I was thinking about you.” He asked for some honey in a spoon “because you love me.” He played with Toca Band on his iPad and there is one arrangement of musicians on it that he really likes and he recorded it with Voice Memos. He then used my phone to make a long time lapse. He carried it around and then had it hanging from the couch. Eventually, he had it propped up over on the rug somehow and he was playing around on the floor in front of it.

We left at 12:30 and walked over to the mall. I pushed my bike and stopped at the bike shop where they put on new tires and a new back tube and also an iPhone mount for the handlebars—I never use my phone while biking, but I’m always worried it will fall out of my pocket.

While I did that, Carly and August went to Rebar and got one of the chocolate banana smoothies. Carly called and asked what size and I said medium. When I showed up they had gotten a large. August had been worried bout us drinking too much of it. Carly taught him ‘gatorading’. He said, “Gatorading! Word of the day!” As we were finishing it, he justified the large by telling me “I thought I knew that you’d drink lots.” But I was only drinking “lots” because there was a lot left and we wanted to get going.

Carly had gone on ahead to do the shopping: more tape rolls for him and some groceries. August wanted to go to the playground so I did that with him. He climbed on the plane, then was playing imaging games when Carly showed up. She noticed these interesting flowers from the trees with seeds in them and we collected some to try to plant back at home. I left before 1:30 to head home and start baking the bread. August said, “Great. Cuz I don’t really like to do baking.” they found a couple other kinds of seeds after I left, and he found a piece of rope that he tied to his bike on the way back.

I baked the bread and cleaned up the kitchen. They were home at 2:30 and August watched the end of the Mexican Grand Prix qualifying. He wanted to make slime and realized “Time, slime rhyme!” He then chanted “I love time rhyme slime!” I got ready to go pick my parents up at the airport. August was saying bye to me as I left, using his megaphone thing to call out the window: “Good use for my megaphone…bye!” I left at 3:35. Traffic got worse and worse as I went, so I switched routes to take 6, the toll road. Got there in plenty of time. There flight landed at 4:24 and I was there 12 minutes later. They came out about 5:30.

Got to the car and eventually found the exit to the parking garage. We were home before 7. I heard him calling “Gramma!” out the window. He then needed to run and go to the bathroom. He was so excited when he greeted them at the door. A very happy boy.

He took them upstairs and gave them the tour, showing them where everyone sleeps. He said, “Please get used to my tape thing…I tape things…” and went on to explain how he likes to put tape on everything and trick you by taping things down. Downstairs he showed them the slime that he and Carly had made. The special ingredient today was cinnamon. While I was gone they had done that, Carly had made a full dinner, and they had made popcorn. That made August went to watch a nature show about polar bears (of course). She couldn’t find the one they usually watch, but found a different one that they watched together.

Grampa give him a couple of googly eyes he had found on the ship. Each day the towels were folded as different animals and used googly eyes. At first August said he could take them to school to add to the eyes collection there. But then he decided to add them to the piece of art that is hanging on the fridge. Carly got it down and he glued them on. He talked about how many treasures he has “All because of my special eyes!”

We had the chicken and rice and veggies for dinner. August and I then sat on the couch and finished reading Hilda and the Black Hound. August’s hair had been wet when we got home and he’d been talking about how he had washed it. So I had thought he had had a bath. Instead, he had just wanted to style his hair and had gotten it wet.

Carly got his bath ready and I took him up. But when he got in he said that the spider bite still hurt. I agreed to wash him outside the bath, but negotiations broke down over the details and he had a complete meltdown. Carly took him into the bedroom. When he calmed down she had him say goodnight to my parents. She then took a shower and I put him to sleep. He was sad that I wouldn’t tell a story, but he asked for a song. I sang the Alligator song and we made up verses about hippos and dragons. Then I sang the Sleepy Little Nautilus song, then Animal Life. He was asleep at 8:55.

Seesaw exercise:

Guitar improv:

Reading by himself:

Crazy time lapse:

Greeting Gramma and Grampa: